If you ask Russellville High School coach Jeff Holt to describe this year's Cyclone football team, one of the first words he'd probably use is young.

The Cyclones have just a few starters returning from last year's team -- which advanced to the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs -- and have plenty of new faces to put in the mix. That's why this summer has held quite a bit of significance.

Sure, every team wants to have a good offseason each year and perform well during 7-on-7, team camps or whatever else the squads might participate in. Still, this summer has carried a lot of weight for RHS, as repetitions and experience are the desired objectives.

The Cyclones have had success this summer, including winning the Region 2 high school 7-on-7 football tournament earlier this month at Buerkle Field. Now, Russellville will be among the teams featured at Saturday's state tournament in Little Rock.

A win there would go a long way for the young Cyclones.

There's nothing much better for a youthful team heading into the season than having a load of confidence at its side. Doing well at Saturday's tournament could help in that area.

Already, the Cyclones have shown improvement over the course of the summer. That's a big step, but Holt and the rest of the RHS coaching staff hope that kind of play carries over to the more standard 11-on-11 football that is on display every Friday night during the fall. Doing that would be an even bigger step.

One of the biggest unknowns for Russellville heading into the upcoming season has been who will fill the voids left on the offensive and defensive lines. While those positions aren't used during 7-on-7 play, getting good production from the skill positions just makes things that much easier when two-a-days start.

There were some question marks about the skill position vacancies, too, but I imagine many of those answers have surfaced or at least become a little clearer over the past few months. The main thing now, as far as that group goes, is to just continue getting experience and making improvement.

Having a good day during state tournament play would be an indicator things are heading in that direction. Even though wins on Friday nights are more important than wins in 7-on-7 games, this weekend's action is still important in the sense it could vastly help the levels of confidence and experience.

I'd say both are pretty important when it comes to being a successful team. When it all comes down to it, that's the goal, right?

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This year was supposed to see the beginning of two brand new classifications in Arkansas -- AAAAAA and AAAAAAA. But is it going to happen?

Athletic directors and coaches all across the state sure hope it does. I'm sure many media members do too, as they prepare for things such as football preseason publications.

Over the past few months, there has been some extra tension that could hinder the reclassification of schools, as approved by the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) last year.

Gary Holt, an attorney for Gary Eubanks and Associates in Little Rock, filed a suit against the AAA and outgoing executive director Jimmy Coats, claiming a recently-implemented 1.75 enrollment multiplier for private schools is unfair and unconstitutional.

Basically, the claim is the jump some of the private schools would make under the new classification would match those teams against opponents with an unfair size advantage.

Should Holt win his case, the schools will be forced to play under the classifications used from 2004-06. Can you say major headache?

Schedules have already been made for the new classifications, and having to redo those would create a lot of difficulties. A hearing is scheduled for July 31 to review this case.

Russellville is one of the schools in the newly-created conferences (AAAAAAA), and many other River Valley schools have been moved around. Each would most likely be greatly affected should the classifications they were anticipating end up vanishing.

I'm not going to pretend I know the very best answer to this predicament, but let's just hope this situation gets resolved in the best way and in a quick manner.

If not, we better have plenty of Advil handy.

Courier sports writer Mark Burke can be reached at 968-5252 extension 244 or at sports@couriernews.com.